Jerrie Short Stories

peace and quiet (pt. 2)

"Being different from your family is hard," Leigh-Anne says as everyone's eyes turn to watch her after she had presented herself. "For example, I am a hearing person, while my parents are deaf. From a fairly young age, I had to play the role of an interpreter for my parents, which is a lot of responsibility on a kid's shoulders. I bet each and every one of you guys, everyone who is listening to me right now, has your own story to tell about standing out for some reason, being the exceptional one in your immediate circle. For Jade, that was being born deaf, while everyone around her, at the time, was hearing. For that reason, like many other kids in the same situation as her, she was the baby of the family regardless of her age. Her parents were always a bit overprotective, only because they wanted to keep her safe in this world where the majority of the people are different from her. That's the Jade I got to know ever since we were about three or four, she was just this slightly spoiled kid whose parents did everything so she would be safe. When her relationship with Perrie was starting to become more serious and committing, however, it was beginning to look like Perrie was more of the baby in the relationship, if you could phrase it that way. She wanted, in her modest way and her class, Jade to spoil her a little bit. But I'm spoiling the story for you guys, I'll start from the beginning. It was in sophomore year of college, so about six months since Jade and Perrie first met. They were a couple by that time, and it was working out well, but they were still getting to know each other.

"On the town next to campus, there was a concert happening that Jade really, really wanted to attend. The struts were performing-" Leigh is cut off by claps from the crowd, as the members of the band are seated in one of the front tables. "Oh, yeah, they deserve it, give it up for them! But they weren't as big as they are now back then, they were this local band that played every once in a while. And, for those of you who don't know, Jade and Jed used to date for three or four months, back in freshman year, before Perrie was in the picture. Obviously it didn't work out between them, but they stayed good friends, and he kept inviting her to see the band whenever they played. Jade loved coming to see the band, they have great music as I bet you all agree, but she didn't like going on her own. I went with her once, and Jesy did too if I remember correctly, and for that concert in sophmore year, Jade wanted to take Perrie. Jade mentioned it a couple of times here and there, wanting to go together, and on the day of the concert texted Perrie,

"we're going out tonight, right?

"To which Perrie replied,

"Dunno? I don't remember being asked

"As soon as Jade saw that text, her heart dropped to her stomach. I know Jade, and I know she tends to worry a lot about many things, but this was one of the very few times I saw her anxious to the point where she genuinely had no idea how to handle the situation. That's how afraid she was of losing Perrie. She came out of her room, bursted into mine while I was working on an essay and signed,

"Perrie doesn't remember that we've talked about the concert. She sat on the edge of my bed and I shut my laptop screen down because I could see how frustrated she was, and I wanted to give her my full attention. She was becoming more nervous by the minute, and she signed, what am I going to do now? So I advised her,

"You should probably talk to her, ask her if she can come anyway. Jade looked up at the ceiling with a desperate expression on her face, like she was hoping for some kind of saviour to fall from the sky and help her. Then, she looked at me and signed,

"The concert is today, it's too late to start talking about it now. Perrie's got stuff to do, I'm sure. But what I don't get is how is it possible that she doesn't remember that we've talked about it. It's not like I made a big deal out of it, but I still mentioned it and I sort of feel like she hasn't been listening now. Wouldn't that hurt you, if you were dating Andre for six months already and he didn't listen to everything you said when you talked?